Aravind Srinivas's 4 Rules for Winning in Tech When asked what he'd do if he were in Sundar Pichai's shoes, facing the choice to cannibalise existing products to build a Perplexity competitor, Srinivas offered a candid perspective

Aravind Srinivas, Co-founder and CEO of Perplexity, still swears by one classic mantra: "Work incredibly hard and there's no substitute for it. Don't overthink or act like you're too smart, trying to strategically hack your way to building a company despite everything."

But he also has a word of caution for young entrepreneurs. If your product succeeds and starts generating millions or even billions in revenue, others, especially large AI labs will likely copy your model.

"You should assume that if your company becomes a big hit, if it's making hundreds of millions or potentially billions in revenue, model companies will copy it. These labs are raising tens of billions, and they need to justify all that capex. They're constantly looking for new monetisation avenues. So they'll copy anything that works."

Embrace the fear of getting copied

Rather than being paralysed by fear, Srinivas urges aspiring entrepreneurs to embrace it and use it as fuel. "You have to live with it. Your moat comes from moving fast and building a unique identity. At the end of the day, users care about specificity like when you're hiring someone for house help, you want a specific person, not a general agency."

"Sleep with that fear, wake up excited to build. That's the only thing that'll keep you going."

On the innovator's dilemma: what if you were google?

When asked what he'd do if he were in Sundar Pichai's shoes, facing the choice to cannibalise existing products to build a Perplexity competitor, Srinivas offered a candid perspective. "I can say what I want, but they have more data on what users are doing. Also, there are a lot of people who still hate AI. Pushing AI across a massive distribution network like Google's isn't easy." "What would I do? I don't know and frankly, I don't want to be in that position. Plus, if every AI answer comes with ads, users are going to hate it too. That's why good alternatives like us exist."

Pick something you want to be known for

His advice to new grads and aspiring founders, "Pick something you want to be known for. Sure, others are integrating search too but we want to be the fastest and most accurate. And I can't just say that and stop. We need new strategies and new products that don't yet exist."

That's where Perplexity's AI browser comes in. Srinivas doesn't view the browser and search as separate products.

"The browser is a natural evolution from search, just like Google went from Search to Chrome. Chrome was the reason they scaled from hundreds of millions of queries to billions. So now, we're making a massive bet on our browser."

He adds that browsers are essential for building agentic systems especially on mobile.

"Agents can only truly be built with a browser. If you want a mobile agent that's not limited by Apple or Google's OS rules, you need a browser. Nobody wants to be disintermediated by AI overnight."

On failing

On staying motivated in tough times, Srinivas turns to a familiar face, 'Elon Musk'.

"Honestly, I just watch Elon Musk videos on YouTube," he said, prompting laughter from the audience. "No, seriously. There's one where SpaceX has its third rocket failure, and he's asked what he'll do next. He says, 'I don't ever give up. I'd have to be dead or incapacitated.'"

"I hope to stay that way. It's not easy, he's done it for way longer, and that's why people respect him. But there are plenty of examples of great entrepreneurs who kept going despite the odds. So what do you have to lose? Just keep going."

He was speaking at Y combinator's AI Startup School in San Francisco.